The question now is: If we leave aside that Turkish EU membership is at least 30 to 40 years out in the future, what got into Bendtsen?

I would guess that the Conservatives wanted to keep this as a non-issue, and we don’t have any indications that Bendtsen’s move was cleared with the Conservative leadership. Perhaps he was beginning to fear that the party would be left without MEPs and looking to poach prospective Liberal and DF voters?

Who knows: Maybe Turkey will be the issue that will liven up the campaign, even if it in that case is destined to become ugly. That the Conservatives otherwise have tried to place themselves to the left of the Liberals and DF on the authoritarian-libertarian dimension just makes the picture more complicated.